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Title:

文化と文明 : 「言語と文化」考(1)

Other Titles:

Language and Culture (1) : in Relation to Civilization

Authors:

岡野, 哲OKANO, SATOSHI

Keywords:

CultureCivilizationCommunityIndividualHistory

Issue Date:

31-Oct-1997

Publisher:

北海学園大学人文学会

Abstract:

In this first instalment of the series of essays on "Language and Culture", emphasis is almost exclusively placed on the relation between the notions of culture and civilization, as conceived in this country in general. At the outset, however, the framework of observation is set up with regard to the possibilities of putting together the concept of culture with that of language. This framework will be retained through to the conclusion of the series. The notions of culture and civilization are found to be either distinguished or confused in the discourses of relevant topics published during the past century. The need of clear distinction between them should evidently realized by anybody concerned with the related fields of study. It should be noted that the concept of culture can be traced back to the early Confucian philosophy in the political sense that by culture is meant the subjugation of alien peoples to the Chinese regime through imbuing them with Confucian doctrine of appropriate behaviour. This interpretation of culture is almost forgotten nowadays, only to be found in the definition of the word BUNKA (culture) in more advanced dictionaries of the Japanese language. In the course of modernization of Japan following the Meiji Restoration, the terms BUNKA and BUNMEI (civilization) were used by the intellectual leaders in ways different from the present days, but in a half century they came to be set apart somehow, with a variety of distinct connotations. Such deep thinkers as T.S. Eliot and Edward Sapir mean by culture the way of life respected, preserved and transmitted within a group of individuals. Culture in its genuine form, however, is becoming more and more difficult to observe. As a token of such genuine culture, it may be possible to refer to the Ainu festival of IOMANTE. Civilization, on the other hand, with its rather universally acceptable values, tends to override the barriers hedging a group of people adhering to a manner of life in the sense of culture. One good proof of the power of civilization is the dissemination of modern arithmetic throughout the world. The interrelation of culture and civilization should also be noted as it is observed in the history of tobacco smoking in Japan as well as throughout the world, and the roles played by Buddhism and Confucianism from the earliest era to the present day in the history of Japan.